Controversy at the Track; and, Pat "Dick" McQuaid Takes the High Ground

The First Rule of Fight Club Is, There Is No Fight Club: Okay folks, as the phenomenal British squads single-handedly rebuild the Empire with a monster sweep of gold medals, we've now got ourselves a coupla hot'n'sexy controversies at the Olympic track events, and they apparently boil down to these: (1) the rules suck; and (2) the rules are fine, but if you say what they are, *you* suck. Why? So far as I can tell--and frankly, that ain't much, as I fully admit being completely baffled by bike races in which you, say, virtually track-stand for half an hour so you *don't* go fast--in the first case, the Brits are emotionally crushed for being screwed out of a medal in the women's team sprint after making a transition like a millimeter too early. Okay, like a crap hand-off in a relay race--I can get that. Blows, but as even the DQed athletes acknowledged, fair's fair. In the second case, the rules say if you make a crap start, you can start over. You can do this, according to the trackies whose angry and defensive posts I've perused, by just falling over on purpose. Uh...okay, cool. But now the Brits are pissed because they're being accused of cheating by the same sort of freaks who actually consider "badminton" an Olympic event, even though they followed the rules and didn't do anything wrong. So what's the prob? Yes, some poor sod on the British team mouthed off and *said* what they did. !@#$in' A, am I the only one who thinks that when things go in your favor and you're likely to look like an assclown for yappin' about it, you should just *hush up*? Thank you, y'all can just send me a check next time for services rendered...on second thought, maybe you better wait til after you try to explain why you're all stopped dead upright in the middle of a race! Here, the topple: and the frantic post-admission backtrack:

From the Pot Calling the Kettle Black Department: yes, the Lance Armstrong situation has taken yet another giant leap forwards towards justice: rabid anti-doping hero Pat "Dick" McQuaid of UCI has just declared that USADA ought to stop its investigation into whether Armstrong doped so he--that is, an independent investigator--can determine the truth because, well, USADA's not objective. Like a guy who hooked his entire career onto Lance's shooting star is, Pat? Lookin' forward to that verdict--at least, I'm sure Lance Armstrong is!

Vino Takes Over the World: finally, it's transfer season, kids, and while word's still mum on where Jens Voigt's gonna go, as expected reigning gold medalist Alexandre Vinokourov has neatly bagged Vuelta winner/Tour podium finisher Vincenzo Nibali, which means that not only is the guy going to be (fairly) making more dough than a bakery, but Vino's continued path from rider to newbie DS to Total Dominator of the Universe is well on its way. See what happens when you mess with Nibali, Liquigas--next time, be nicer when you tell the press he's yer beeyotch!